Overview - Players must do battle with the brewmaster Rook Stonetoe, the rogue He Softfoot, and the priest Sun Tenderheart, as the three fallen protectors assault the raid simultaneously. At 66% and 33% health remaining, each protector will perform Desperate Measures, manifesting spirits of fallen allies to bring new and powerful attacks to bear against the raid until those spirits are defeated. Triggering Desperate Measures on multiple protectors at the same time is inadvisable.

Bond of the Golden Lotus - Rook Stonetoe, He Softfoot, and Sun Tenderheart share a spiritual bond, linking their fates to each other. Upon reaching 1 health, each of them will begin to cast Bond of the Golden Lotus if any of the other Protectors are still in combat, restoring 30% of maximum heath upon completion. Bringing all three Protectors to 1 health simultaneously will restore clarity to their clouded minds.

Corrupted Brew - Rook Stonetoe hurls a keg of Corrupted Brew at a distant target, inflicting 275,000 Shadow damage to enemies within 5 yards and slowing targets hit by 65% for 15 sec. In Heroic difficulty, every two casts, Corrupted Brew's travel time is reduced by half a second. This effect resets when Rook Stonetoe begins his Desperate Measures.

Clash - Rook Stonetoe clashes against an enemy, charging each other and meeting halfway. Rook Stonetoe then immediately begins to perform Corruption Kick. In Non-Heroic Difficulty, Rook Stonetoe's Clash will not be cast during any Desperate Measures phase.

Corruption Kick - Spins rapidly in a circle, rooting himself and inflicting 180,000 Physical damage to targets within 10 every second for 4 sec. Additionally torments targets struck, inflicting 112,500 Shadow damage every two seconds for 6 sec.

He Softfoot -

Desperate Measures - Upon reaching 66% or 33% health remaining, He Softfoot manifests a twisted spirit of his brother, creating Embodied Anguish, which fixates upon the raid member who has the Mark of Anguish. Once this spirit is defeated, He Softfoot resumes fighting players.

Mark of Anguish - Mark of Anguish periodically inflicts 75,000 Shadow damage every second and roots the target. The Marked player gains the ability to transfer the Mark to another friendly player within 30 yards. Embodied Anguish's gaze moves to a random target upon killing his current target.

Lingering Anguish - Embodied Anguish's attacks periodically inflict Lingering Anguish, increasing damage taken by Mark of Anguish by 35%. This effect stacks. A stack of Lingering Anguish is applied to all raid members when Mark of Anguish is passed to another player.

Debilitating Anguish - Possessing the Mark of Anguish debilitates targets, decreasing their armor by 50% for until cancelled.

Garrote - Traveling through the shadows, He Softfoot Garrotes targets, inflicting 108,000 Physical damage every 2 sec. This effect is removed when He Softfoot begins his Desperate Measures.

Gouge - He Softfoot attempts to gouge the eyes of his target, incapacitating them for 6 sec and fixating on a random target until Taunted. If the target is facing away, Gouge will instead knock them away a short distance.

Master Poisoner - He Softfoot is a Master Poisoner and occasionally coats his weapons with various types of poisons. In Heroic Difficulty, Master Poisoner abilities also take effect when using Garrote or Fixate. In Non-Heroic Difficulty, He Softfoot's Master Poisoner abilities will not be cast during any Desperate Measures phase.

Noxious Poison - He Softfoot coats his weapon in a Noxious Poison, causing successful melee attacks to create pools of poison on the ground, inflicting 127,500 Nature damage every second. These pools may be jumped over. This effect is removed when He Softfoot begins his Desperate Measures.

Manifest Emotions - Embodied Despair and Embodied Desperation focus their negative emotions, creating Sha manifestations which attack players. Any damage taken by Manifest Emotions will also be suffered by the creature that spawned them.

Sha Sear - Causes an explosion of Shadow magic around the target, inflicting increasing Shadow damage every second to all enemies within 5 yards around the target.

Shadow Word: Bane - Expels a word of misery upon multiple targets, inflicting 135,000 Shadow damage every 3 sec for 18 sec. Each time this effect deals damage, it will jump to an additional target, up to a total of 3 times.

Calamity - Calls forth a great Calamity, striking all players for 30% of their maximum health as Shadow damage. This also removes Shadow Word: Bane from all targets. In Heroic difficulty, Calamity increases in magnitude by an additional 10% of maximum health each addtional time it is cast. This effect resets when Sun Tenderheart begins her Desperate Measures. In Non-Heroic Difficulty, Sun Tenderheart's Calamity will not be cast during any Desperate Measures phase.

Patch 5.4 - Sha of Pride
Sha of Pride is the fourth encounter in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid and takes place under the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

Swallow Your PrideDefeat the Sha of Pride in Siege of Orgrimmar on Flexible, Normal, or Heroic difficulty after no player has gained Pride from Manifestations of Pri...

10

Pandaria Raid

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Pride - Players start the encounter with 0 points of Pride. Whenever hit by an ability from the Sha of Pride or one of its minions, players gain 5 Pride. As a player's Pride increases to 25, 50, 75 and 100, Swelling Pride will inflict additional effects on that player.

Gift of the Titans - Norushen gifts players with immunity to Pride. In addition, if all players with Gift of the Titans are within 8 yards of each other, they gain Power of the Titans.

Power of the Titans - If all players with Gift of the Titans stand within 8 yards of each other, they gain Power of the Titans for 15 sec. Power of the Titans increases haste and all damage and healing done by 15%.

Swelling Pride - When the Sha of Pride reaches 100 energy, it releases a wave of dark energy, inflicting 350,000 Shadow damage to all players, giving them 5 Pride. In addition, Swelling Pride will trigger a secondary effect on any player with 25 or more Pride.

Bursting Pride - When Swelling Pride hits a player that has 25 to 49 Pride, a mass of Sha corruption is created at their location. After 3 seconds, the corruption explodes, inflicting 250,000 Shadow damage to all players within 5 yards. Any player damage by this explosion gains 5 Pride.

Projection - When Swelling Pride hits a player that has 50 to 74 Pride, they create a projection 15 yards from their current location. Projections explode after 6 seconds, inflicting 175,000 Shadow damage to all players, unless the projection's creator is standing within it. Any player damage by a projection's explosion gains 5 Pride.

Aura of Pride - When Swelling Pride hits a player that has 75 to 99 Pride, they are afflicted with Aura of Pride for 25 sec. This effect causes the player to inflict 250,000 Shadow damage to their allies within 5 yards every 1 sec. Any player damage by Aura of Pride gains 5 Pride.

Overcome - When players reach 100 Pride, they are overcome, increasing their damage and healing done by 50%. Players hit by Swelling Pride while Overcome are permanently mind controlled and have their health increased by 100%.

Mark of Arrogance - The Sha of Pride marks 2 players, inflicting 55,000 Shadow damage every 1 sec., for the remainder of the encounter. This effect stacks. When Mark of Arrogance is removed, the dispeller gains 5 Pride. In 25 player Difficulty, the Sha of Pride marks 5 players.

Wounded Pride - The Sha of Pride wounds his current target for 15 sec. Wounded players gain 5 Pride whenever they suffer melee damage from the Sha of Pride.

Manifestation of Pride - The Sha of Pride periodically summons Manifestations of Pride to attack players.

Last Word - When a Manifestation of Pride dies, it gives 5 Pride to the 2 closest players. In 25 player Difficulty, Manifestaions of Pride give Pride to the 5 closest players.

Self-Reflection - The Sha of Pride causes up to 5 players to reflect on their actions, creating a Reflection of Pride at their location. With each tick of Self-Reflection, the Sha focuses on players with higher levels of Pride, only targeting those with 25, 50 and then 75 Pride.

Reflection - Reflections explode out of the ground at a player's location after 2 sec., inflicting 250,000 Shadow damage to all players within 2 yards. Any player damage by this explosion gains 5 Pride.

Corrupted Prison - The Sha of Pride activates 2 titan prisons, trapping a player inside of each. As the prison activates, it releases a burst of Sha energy that inflicts 250,000 Shadow damage to all players within 0 yards, knocking them back and giving them 5 Pride. Imprisoned players are stunned, suffer 80,000 Shadow damage and gain 5 Pride every second. Players remain stunned until all titan locks surrounding the prison have been activated. Titan locks are activated by having a player stand within the lock's rune and remaining there until the prison is deactivated. In 25 player Difficulty, the Sha of Pride activates 4 prisons.

Banishment - The Sha of Pride banishes a random player to the corrupted Sha Realm. Banished players leave behind a physical form of their pride and remain banished until it is destroyed. Players within the Sha realm move 50% faster and are compelled to continually run forward, unable to stop. Additionally, coming into contact with corruption within the Sha realm inflicts 350,000 Shadow damage every second. Any player damage by the Sha realm gains 5 Pride.

Orb of Light - Orbs of Light form within the corrupted Sha realm that weaken a player's physical form of pride. Each orb inflicts 25% of the physical form's maximum health in Holy damage and increases its damage taken by 25%. This effect stacks.

Reaching Attack - The Sha of Pride strikes at a distant target, inflicting 50% of weapon damage as Shadow and increasing Shadow damage taken by 25% for 8 sec. The Sha uses this ability when no targets are in melee range.

Unleashed - When the Sha of Pride reaches 30% health remaining it becomes unleashed. With its unleashed power, the Sha focuses on Norushen, instantly killing him. The remaining power of the unleashed Sha inflicts 245,000 Shadow damage every 10 seconds for the remainder of the encounter. Players gain 5 Pride each time they are damaged by Unleashed.

Final Gift - As Norushen dies, he purifies all players, reducing their Pride to zero.

"Going to try DP scaling with Spirit. GoAK with AE heals. Maybe buff to WoG, EF, LoD."
For some clarification on this, here's the patch notes for Divine Plea and Holy's Guardian of Ancient Kings in the next PTR build:

Guardian of the Ancient Kings (Holy version) has been redesigned. The ability is no longer limited to the next 5 single-target heals, and deals additional healing based on all healing spells cast by the Paladin for its duration. The ability also increases the Paladin's haste by 10% while it's active. However, the duration of the ability has been reduced to 15 seconds (down from 30 seconds).

Divine Plea no longer reduces the amount of healing done by 50%, and now restores 135% of the Paladin's Spirit as mana every 3 seconds for 9 seconds. The total amount of mana restored will always be at least 12% of the Paladin's total mana.

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Combat is supposed to feel faster-paced than the other specs, but we agree that it's gotten a bit TOO spammy, particularly where the Tier 15 set bonus is concerned. We don't have any solid info on any changes we might make yet, but we definitely see the concern and are discussing it.

The challenge we always face when balancing between different specs that perform the same role is that, even if the benefits are relatively small, some players will feel "required" to play whichever is "best". Even in cases where each spec has a clearly defined niche that they excel at, some players still feel like they should change specs from fight to fight to match each encounter's mechanics.

We're not sure it's even possible to ever balance things out completely perfectly so that all specs are equal in all areas, but we do our best to at least minimize the differences. It's far too early to guess at which specs will be "best" once 5.4 launches, but our goal is to allow you to play whichever you enjoy the most without feeling like you're making a huge sacrifice. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Free Character Moves (US)

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

If you're on one of the source realms listed below, you can move your characters to one of the designated destination realms and avoid the queues -- for free!

By initiating one of these transfers, you will be moving your character to a new realm and home. This is a one-time, one-way move. If you wish to move your character elsewhere, you will need to use the paid transfer service.

Please be aware that, due to the unpredictable nature of free transfers, we may close down any Free Character Moves at any time and without warning if the target realm becomes full. If you plan to move with friends or your guild, we suggest that you coordinate the effort to reduce the chance of any stragglers being left behind.

Early closures aside, this set of Free Character Moves will end on Thursday, July 25.

I thought the purpose of the Free Realm Transfer was to repopulate dying realms. Korgath is already a high population realm. Wouldn't it serve the purpose better to offer the Free Realm Transfer to one of the dying low population realms like Archimonde?
We've found over the years that people would rather stay on high population realms with long queues than move to very low population realms. When offering transfers - even free ones - to low population realms, very few people take the offer and high queue times persist. By providing transfers to medium population realms we can, at the very least, offer them a somewhat enticing reason to get away from their long queues and offer relief to that entire realm.

Obviously we're exploring some new ways to solve low population issues in 5.4, and we'll have more details on how that will all work (as well as a final name!) in the near future. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

SWTOR Class Representative Program
SWTOR is adding an interesting way for players to provide feedback on classes and get developer replies. You can see the full post over on Darthhater.

Originally Posted by SWTOR

How Will Class Representatives Be Selected?
This process is going to be largely in your hands! As of the time of making this post, you will be able to head over to your Advanced Class Forum and you will find a post where you can begin nominations for who your Class Representative will be. After a span of time (a week or so) we will create a poll with the names we saw mentioned most, by each AC, and you will vote on who you want your rep to be! I want to note that Class Representatives will be shared across mirrored ACs, so Sentinel and Marauder will have the same representative. We are still going to allow one to be selected for each, but they will rotate in their responsibilities.

Also, each Class Representative will only serve for one “term” (more on that later). After that a new representative will be elected!

What Will They Do?
Upon the Class representatives being selected, we will release a schedule. On each scheduled date listed, the chosen representative for each Class will make a forum post in their Class forum with the top 3 things they want to have answered or commented on. Our current plan is to do 4 ACs each month with 2 ACs being able to propose questions every 2 weeks.

Up until the scheduled date, the rep’s job is to work to figure out what the top 3 issues or questions are for their Class. Once posted, we will begin working with the Combat Team to get an answer or comment to all 3 of those issues, regardless of what they are! Our goal is a one week turnaround from the time that you post the questions for us to get you an answer. I will stress now that our development schedule will take priority at all times, so if our Combat Team is unavailable due to development constraints, any of this schedule is subject to change.

Expectations
Our number one goal is to get your questions answered. We have known for some time that players have had Class balance questions, and it has been tricky to get them answered. The purpose of this initiative is to get those questions addressed as directly as possible. I want to make sure we stress the following things:

It is possible, and even likely, that we could disagree with player sentiment towards something in relation to Class balance. Ex: Why does suck at ?! We may respond that we feel they are in a good place in our design goals and we will do our best to explain why.

Attaching feedback to your top 3 in no way guarantees that it will be feedback that is actionable. The purpose is to allow a set dialog between our Combat Team and you here on the forums. Just because something appears in the top 3 provided by a representative does not mean it is feedback that will garner special treatment.

Class Representatives are player elected and will not be granted any special access to the BioWare team. If chosen, you won’t have to sign an NDA or anything similar. You will be a player-elected forum user who assists your Class in formulating the top issues and concerns you would like to have BioWare commentary on.

The WOW devs have it right as far as class balance. There should never be ´class devs´ nor should there be class representatives. So what now? a class will get buffed because their class rep is a bigger crybaby? or more articulate? A game is better off if people with knowledge of many specs and classes are the ones offering insights.

SWTOR's class representative program is the exact same program that Star Wars Galaxies had.

Oh man, that's not a good sign.

Add that it's a BIOWARE game, a studio that cherry pick JUST what they had planned ahead in their feedbacks. PLUS it's SWTOR a game whose developers blamed the PLAYERS for its fails ("we attended your demands and now the game sucks").

very interesting. Sha of pride actually looks fun actually. People stacking up for titan debuff in a very "captain planet" way. running and unlocking prisons.

I was almost heartbroken when i saw the fallen protectors encounter. But then i saw that they return to "normal "when all 3 are brought to 1 health. I felt for the big dumb guy (rook).

Solets see, Zhi the Harmonious ( the leader) died during the Mogu attack.... I saw that Rook summons the Fire mage...i'm guessing Leven (though i didnt see him) and one other. He softfoot is the competent rogue you work with several times, he summons his brother so that must be Ji softfoot who you have to rescue almost every day.

I dont even remember the priest and didnt see who she summoned.

.....

Very creepy that their "friends" all float in the air all unconscious while they "wait"

Lool its funny to see whining towards SWTOR the once dubbed WoW killer lol. At least it aint just Blizzard stuff that gets whined at lol.

On Topic: Class rep sounds like a bad idea. And as someone said earlier Blizzard has it right. Class balance will never exist unless every class is exactly the same. I dare you to name a game where Class balance is perfect cause ive played many mmos and never seen PvP with true balance.

Heroic Banishment - The Sha of Pride banishes a random player to the corrupted Sha Realm. Banished players leave behind a physical form of their pride and remain banished until it is destroyed. Players within the Sha realm move 50% faster and are compelled to continually run forward, unable to stop. Additionally, coming into contact with corruption within the Sha realm inflicts 350,000 Shadow damage every second. Any player damage by the Sha realm gains 5 Pride.

Dunno, but this sounds like a pretty fun mechanic and might create a really cool boss in heroic. OR it's absolutely horrible and a pain in the ass, we shall see ^^

On Topic: Class rep sounds like a bad idea. And as someone said earlier Blizzard has it right. Class balance will never exist unless every class is exactly the same. I dare you to name a game where Class balance is perfect cause ive played many mmos and never seen PvP with true balance.

This is similar to what Dark Age of Camelot did back in the day. It is actually a good thing. Blizzard does not have it right, they claim to take input from players but in reality this game has changed to suit very few (such as those who enjoy Whack-A-Mole and Guitar Hero). Blizzard's attempted balance between class/specs is awful and has always been awful. They are not getting closer which is a problem. I personally am tired of their excuses and would like to see somebody competent put in charge.

P.S. Dark Age of Camelot RVR was a million times closer to balanced than World of Warcraft will ever be and they had THREE factions with their own classes.

This is similar to what Dark Age of Camelot did back in the day. It is actually a good thing. Blizzard does not have it right, they claim to take input from players but in reality this game has changed to suit very few (such as those who enjoy Whack-A-Mole and Guitar Hero). Blizzard's attempted balance between class/specs is awful and has always been awful. They are not getting closer which is a problem. I personally am tired of their excuses and would like to see somebody competent put in charge.

Ya, having class representatives all claiming they need buffs sure is going to help.

SWTOR going the SWG route I see with the class reps. I'm sure it will go about like it did on SWG, They will just either answer with " we aren't ready to announce that yet" or they will give some random stuff that doesn't answer anything you really wanted answered. When the class rep calls them out on it they will get canned and be replaced with someone that is a kiss ass. Eventually even the kiss ass gets tired of the crap too and they get booted and the cycle starts anew.

As always, I'm going to say how world firsts and hardcore raid progression means nothing when the encounters are available to test and plan for months prior to their release.

Why? Every progress hardcore raider guild can and will create alt on the PTR. It's not exclusive for a few people. Everybody can try them. So it's not unfair. If you don't want to check new encounters on the PTR you or your guild is just not hardcore enough.

This is similar to what Dark Age of Camelot did back in the day. It is actually a good thing. Blizzard does not have it right, they claim to take input from players but in reality this game has changed to suit very few (such as those who enjoy Whack-A-Mole and Guitar Hero). Blizzard's attempted balance between class/specs is awful and has always been awful. They are not getting closer which is a problem. I personally am tired of their excuses and would like to see somebody competent put in charge.

P.S. Dark Age of Camelot RVR was a million times closer to balanced than World of Warcraft will ever be and they had THREE factions with their own classes.

That must be why it's still the rip roaring success it is today. Oh wait.